O'Grady Lab
  • Home
  • News and Events
  • People
    • Current Members
    • Undergraduate Research
    • Past Members
  • Research
  • Publications
  • Data
    • Mitochondrial Primers
    • Nuclear Primers
    • Accession Numbers
  • Photos
  • Courses
  • Educational Outreach
  • Links

Radiation-eating fungi: super hero of the nuclear age?

9/14/2012

4 Comments

 
While some insects can survive more than 10x the amount of radiation than humans, thank you MythBusters, the real inheritors of the nuclear apocalyptic world would have to be fungi. Why? Because radiation exposure for insects would continue after their initial exposure by seeping in through their food sources, but for a fungus that radiation would be lunch!

But how is this possible? First, the numbers of fungi inhabiting planet earth is immense. They are everywhere and you’ve probably experienced them in the form of dandruff or the dreaded athlete’s foot. So when black fungus was found growing on the walls of the still highly radioactive Chernobyl reactor, it wasn’t too exciting, until Dr. Auturo Casadevall began to wonder if the fungus was actually using the radiation as an energy/food source.

“But I thought fungi were decomposers”, you might be saying to yourself, and you’d be right. Because fungi lack chlorophyll, fungi cannot synthesize their own energy source and therefore must consume organic compounds for fuel. Then how might fungus incorporate radiation, something very akin to sunlight, into their metabolism? The answer is melanin.

Yup, I do mean the melanin in our skin that protects us from sunburns (or lack there of for our fair-skinned friends). However, fungi seem to use their melanin for energy capture rather than the acquisition of the perfect summer tan. Studies show that when the melanized fungal cells of Wangiella dermatitidis and Cryptococcus neoformans encounter 500 times the amount of background radiation they actually grow faster even under nutrition-limited conditions unlike their unmelaninized counterparts.

So, when and if a nuclear holocaust does occur, the cockroaches will have plenty of food to munch on. In the meantime, science could utilize these melanin-rich fungi to expand our knowledge of energy capture in the human body, or even radiation clean-up, currently an unexplored arena.

While I don’t expect fungi to sprout legs, don a spidey suit, and fight nuclear-aftermath crimes, I do think they are a start to recolonizing highly radioactive areas and that seems close enough to a super hero power. 

Jessica Craft
4 Comments
Radiation badges link
6/2/2013 07:17:45 pm

Your article is obviously very well researched and planned, as well as being written in intelligent terms. First, the numbers of fungi inhabiting planet earth is immense. Thank you so much for intriguing informational content.

Reply
radiation therapist salary link
6/26/2013 08:57:47 am

oh yeah I know, this is the best radiation eating fungi that i can do so far. I am really loving the way it is.

Reply
windows 8 wiki link
8/1/2013 04:49:53 pm

It is good to know about the radiation eating fungi. By the help of these fungi, we are able to fight back radiations naturally. Further studies are needed in order to prove, will these fungi got any mutation when exposed to radiations continuously.

Reply
Diesel Generator price in Chennai link
11/22/2021 11:30:14 pm

Affinity Powers - We are the leading manufacturers, dealers and suppliers of diesel generator, genset across Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Karnataka and Kerala

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Patrick

    Professor
    Cornell University

    Archives

    April 2018
    March 2018
    August 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    September 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    October 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    September 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    January 2012
    November 2011
    October 2011
    May 2011
    February 2011

    Categories

    All
    1090
    1091
    Alumni
    Aquatic Insects
    Arizona
    Asteia
    Barcoding
    Bennett
    Blog
    Career
    Celebrations
    Chelsea
    Climate Change
    Cornell
    Craft
    Dicranota
    Dolichopodidae
    Drosophila
    Ephydra
    Ephydridae
    Field Work
    Funding
    Goodman
    Hawaiian Drosophila
    Keys
    Kidwell
    Lapoint
    Limonia
    Magnacca
    Marrack
    Montana
    Nesophrosyne
    New Species
    Ogrady
    Ort
    Paceyn
    Pak
    Panbiogeography
    Pediciidae
    Peterson
    Phylogenetic Methods
    Publications
    Readings
    Rhaphidolabis
    Scaptomyza
    Scatella
    Schedule
    Stauffer
    Sylvain
    Talks
    Taxonomy
    Tipula
    Undergraduates
    Unicorns
    Whiteman Lab
    Wojciechowski
    Wolbachia
    Wyoming
    Yeast And Fungi

    RSS Feed